How Watch Any Video on Your Oculus Rift

Lewis

Lewis is a young blogger who has a love for movies and music. He's been freelancing for many years and now focuses on looking for new ways to enjoy movies and music.

You may get Oculus Rift to play games, but do you know that Oculus Rift also offers you great video-watching experience. Here's how to watch any video on your Oculus Rift, whether it's a common 2D video, a 3D movie or a full 360-degree VR production.

Oculus Rift Video Converter – Watch Any Video on Oculus Rift

Can any video be viewed on Oculus Rift? No. But with Oculus Rift Video Converter, you can watch any video on Oculus Rift without error.

Part 1 What is Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality, head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey developed an idea for the new head-mounted display that would be more effective and inexpensive for gamers than ones on the market. In August 2012, the "dev kit" version of the Rift was given as a reward to backers who pledged $300 or more on Kickstarter. The kits sold at a rate of 4-5 per minute the first day. In March 2014, Oculus announced the Devkit 2 (DK2).

The Oculus Rift's main sights are set on video games, but it also plans to impact the way we consumer all media, including movies. Just consider watching Avatar as though you're running through the rainforest and dodging explosions. The Oculus Rift supports 3D movies and a 360-degree viewing experience.

Part 2 Which Video Formats Are Supported by VR Headsets

Can any video be viewed on Oculus Rift? No. Only the video format that supported by Oculus Rift can be played. Now, let's See whether your video files are supported by VR headsets.

VR Headset

Samsung Gear VR

VR One

Oculus Rift

Google Cardboard

2D Video Supported

MP4, AVI, and FLV

MP4, MOV

MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV

According to Devices (Generally MP4)

3D Video Supported

3D SBS Video

3D SBS Video

3D SBS Video

According to Devices (3D SBS Video)

Part 3 How to Convert Any Video to Oculus Rift VR Format

If your video is not the Oculus Rift supported format, then you need an Oculus Rift Video Converter to help you convert video to 3D for your Oculus Rift in 3D effect.

Video Converter Ultimate is one of the best Oculus Rift Video Converter for Windows and Mac. It is designed to convert non-VR 2D/3D videos, DVD, ISO to Oculus Rift 3D SBS format, but also it can convert almost all video formats downloaded from any VR content providers like YouTube, Facebook and more for playback on iPad, iPhone, Android, etc.

Step 1. Download the Oculus Rift VR video converter

First of all, please download the Oculus Rift video converter on your PC (Windows 10/8/8.1/7/XP included) or Mac (macOS Sierra included). Follow the instruction on the interface to complete the installation and launch it.

Click the "Add file" or "Add folder" to import the videos you want to convert to the program. Both 2D and 3D video are supported.

Step 3: Select the Output File Format

Go to "Profile" > "3D" and select the VR format. Please remember you need to select the 3D SBS format for Oculus Rift.

Step 4. Convert Video to Oculus Rift

When you have finished all the above settings, you can simply click the Convert button and let the software do the Oculus Rift video conversion for you.

Part 4 How to Watch 2D/3D/360 Videos on Oculus Rift

Step 1: Properly labeling your 360 and 3D videos

Before you can move your 360 and 3D videos to the Videos folder in your Windows system drive, it must be labeled in the proper format for Oculus to render it correctly.

Label 3D videos:

For 3D panoramic videos, top-bottom, bottom-top, left-right and right-left stereoscopic video support are implemented using the following naming convention:

Naming conventions used to label your 3D panoramic video:

"_TB.mp4" or "_360_TB.mp4" - Top / bottom 3D

"_BT.mp4" or "_360_BT.mp4" - Bottom / top 3D

"_LR.mp4" or "_360_LR.mp4" - Left / right side by side 3D

"_RL.mp4" or "_360_RL.mp4" - Right / left side by side 3D

Please add the proper naming convention to the end of your video file name.

Example: If your video file was MyCoolVideo.mp4, label it asMyCoolVideo_360_TB.mp4.

Label 360 videos:

360 videos in Oculus are implemented using spherical mapping to render panoramic videos. For your 360 video to be compatible with Oculus, add "_360" to the end of your file name.
Example: If your video file was MyCoolVideo.mp4, label it as MyCoolVideo_360.mp4.